


Oslo

by Shawarmerei (livefromarkham)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-22
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-20 08:15:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1503347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livefromarkham/pseuds/Shawarmerei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to be a standard Chitauri attack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oslo

Asgard Corporation had The Destroyer up and running to fight the Chitauri before you could say "Icelandic giant robot."

Though some had theories about why its mega-millionaire CEO had thought it appropriate to have a metal behemoth hanging out in his backyard that _just so happened_ to have many of the same features as the line of Mark-1 Jaegers currently in construction (up to and including a two-person piloting system involving the Drift), no one was complaining when Odin let his sons take it for a test drive right into the face of danger and they came out on top.

Thor was twenty-three. Loki was nineteen.

As they grew, their fame grew with them, highlighting them as the only fighting force protecting Europe for a year and a half. The United States had gotten Howling Commando fresh off the line just before The Destroyer had made its debut, but the project had to be put on ice after a mishap in the Pacific. There were rumors that Stark Industries was putting something together, but that didn't matter to the rest of the world. All that mattered was the amount of Chitauri guts that The Destroyer chose to strew about the Atlantic seafloor.

Thor was the star, being the eldest son and the more experienced of the two in fighting maneuvers. Though he received a respectable amount of attention himself, Loki grew resentful of Thor's fame, though he continued fighting alongside his brother. He was experienced at veiling his emotions, and managed to do so even in the Drift for a time. Their kill counts continued to rise, plateauing in the low teens.

After War Machine was unveiled and Howling Commando was recommissioned, it seemed like the young duo's time in the limelight was over. They started to slack off. After all, they thought they were being replaced, and why bother training for something when you aren't needed anymore?

Then Leviathan happened.

Oslo, Norway.  
June 25, 2015.  
4:15 am.  
Category III Chitauri: dubbed "Leviathan."

"Kill number fourteen," Thor said. It was the first thing he'd said all morning since waking up Loki to inform him of the Chitauri currently set on invading Norway. It always bothered him, how self-assured Thor was. They could die at any moment. There was no guarantee that they'd make it out of any encounter alive. Maybe that was why he and Thor worked well together. Somebody had to have restraint.

It made him think, though. Odin had thought that the most lethal occupation on the planet would be proper for his sons. What sort of a father was that?

Thor frowned. Usually Loki had some sort of snarky response about not being so cocky. He'd grown brooding lately. Thor hoped it wasn't anything he'd done. "Are you alright?" he asked, looking over at his younger brother.

"Don't worry about it," Loki replied, and for the moment, Thor decided not to press the issue.

 

The Drift made it hard to hide emotions. Petty as it may have seemed, Thor hoped that it made it too hard for Loki. He hated fighting with his brother. They worked so well together, so why did Loki find it necessary to pick apart Thor's flaws and spit them back in his face whenever things got rough? And, fine, Thor was a little bitter, too, but he wasn't going to let it get the best of him. Especially not now.

Leviathan crashed into them like a sack of bricks.

Thor could have sworn that he had tried to grab the Chitauri mid-air and slam it into the water, but they hadn't moved. Loki's mind was surprisingly void of any "what the hell" reactions, and that was when Thor started to get angry.

"Are you doing this?" Thor asked him wordlessly as Leviathan whipped around and hit them with its tail. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"Nothing of the sort," came the response. "But I do find it peculiar that we're entrusted with an expensive hunk of metal such as this."

"This isn't the time for speculation! We're in the middle of--"

Loki's mental voice is a growl. "Not for you, maybe! You'll be the one to get all the recognition anyway, what does it matter to you whether I fight or not?"

"Is that what this is about!" Thor bellows, watching Leviathan approach. "Would you rather die than receive slightly less appreciation than me for your smaller amount of experience?"

Loki lets out a battle cry, grabs Leviathan through its eye sockets and mouth, and throws it as far as Thor's ever seen him throw before. "Smaller amount of experience?"

"If you could have done that, why haven't you ever done it before?" Thor asks, glancing between Loki and Leviathan. The Chitauri looks disoriented, but angrier than ever.

"What does it matter?" Loki spits. "You never really care about what I'm hiding from you. Why start now?"

"You know that I care about you," and this time Thor's thoughts are softer, and Loki's agitation dies where it stands when he feels that Thor's emotion is genuine. He has the Drift to thank for that, he supposes.

"I'm tired of fighting," Loki replies. "Of being forced to live up to Odin's expectations when it's clear you're the only one that will ever meet them."

"Help me finish this fight, and you won't have to ever again," Thor offers.

Loki responds by lending his own strength to Thor's punch, knocking several of Leviathan's deadly teeth loose and sending the creature reeling.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Thor says, and The Destroyer leaps into the air.

Working together, they killed the Chitauri within half an hour. The trek back through the Oslofjord should have been brief.

"That's all," Thor reassured him. "It's done, brother. No more."

"No more," Loki repeated, without conviction.

There was a pull that Thor wasn't expecting.

"Loki, don't." This had happened the first time they Drifted--he didn't think it was possible with a successful neural handshake--

There was no response. Then, again, verbally, "Loki, don't. Don't chase--"

Fire lit in the younger brother's eyes, and as he punched through a thankfully unoccupied building near the coast, Thor knew he was being dragged along for the ride.

 

"A quarter of Oslo's waterfront, gone. The Destroyer, decommissioned. Millions of dollars, wasted."

 _"I'm not your brother,"_  Loki had cried.  _"I never was. Hasn't he told you yet?"_

He smirked, shaking his head. Odin did not see it. Thor did.

"Are you satisfied with the destruction you've wrought?"

Thor knew that Loki's answer was "yes."


End file.
